NBA draft landscape changing with new rule

By NICK WILLIAMS
Media General News Service
Published: June 26, 2008

Former USC freshman guard O.J. Mayo was disappointed when he learned the NBA issued a rule that mandated players be 19 and a year out of high school before entering the draft.
Before the NBA created the rule after the 2006-07 season, Mayo watched high school superstars LeBron James, Dwight Howard and Sebastian Telfair make the jump straight to the pros, where they were welcomed with multi-million-dollar contracts and shoe deals.
“I think everyone was pretty much upset, because you have a dream of going to the NBA from high school,” said Mayo during the NBA pre-draft camp in Orlando in May.
The same can be said for the other 12 college freshmen who entered this year’s draft, all of whom could have and would have entered the draft out of high school.
Projections before Thursday night’s draft were that the first four or five picks would be freshmen.
Just as the sports world adjusted to the high school superstar showcase that had become the NBA draft, the league is on the verge of a new draft era, consumed by one-and-done players who must abide by the NBA’s new policy.
The ramifications could soon damage the integrity of the college game.
Just ask the college coaches.
“Most people wouldn’t know that if a kid plays for me as a freshman and passes six hours, that’s all, that’s a 1.0 grade average for six hours, he can play through the end of the year without ever going to class again,” said Bobby Knight, the winningest NCAA men’s coach. “That’s not what college athletics should be about. I think it has a tremendous negative effect on the integrity of college athletics.”
“I think it poses a fraud on the academic mission of institutions,” said former Indiana men’s basketball coach Kelvin Sampson, one of whose former players, freshman Eric Gordon, was expected to go within the first five picks. “A lot of these guys, once basketball season ends, they withdraw from their classes and start getting ready for [the draft camps] or the workouts and the draft.”
Knight and Sampson suggest the NBA change the rule to mandate a player be two years removed from his high school senior year rather than just one.
“Until they get that straightened out, where the kid is at least required to be in college two years by agreement between the NCAA and the NBA, then I think it does tremendous damage to college basketball,” Knight said. “The kid stays in school an extra year [and] he’s more mature, more ready to handle the NBA. They just get the kid a year or two later. College basketball benefits, because the kid has to be a student. I’ll guarantee you, there would be very few kids who have left after the first year that went to class in the second semester.”
But Sampson also doesn’t think players should be required to wait to go pro.
“The ones that can go straight from high school, let them go,” Sampson said. “If not, they should stay two years.”
Some will say there is nothing wrong with the policy. In their eyes, college basketball has become more exciting since talents like Greg Oden and Mayo must play one year.
“I think it has been bringing lot of excitement to the college game, where people are taking off work to go see the games,” former Memphis freshman guard Derrick Rose said. “It makes [it a] little bit more exciting. You have some great players in the game, even if it’s just for one year. That’s better than them not being there at all.”
One could also make the case that players are better prepared for the NBA, and league general managers and scouts can better evaluate future investments.
“A lot of those high school players that came out didn’t get a lot of playing time,” said newly appointed Atlanta Hawks general manager Rick Sund. “More often than not, those didn’t get in. And now with the D-League (the NBA’s developmental league), a lot of [them] go to the D-League to get that work. I love it when they are in college.”
But no college senior has been drafted first overall since 2000, when the New Jersey Nets made former Cincinnati center Kenyon Martin the top pick, and no senior has gone within the top three picks since that draft.
“I’d like them to stay four years,” Sund said. “We had [Seattle Sonics forward] Nick Collison for four, Grant Hill had four years and [Tim] Duncan had four years. There’s no doubt they have talent to play, but the rule is the one-and-done, or the rule is you have to go for at least one year. I like that. I wish it was even more, but it’s collectively bargained and it is what it is.”